I am comparing the behavior of Data Table vs Visual Builder Table. Oddly I can click on a spy glass to adjust the filter at the top but this seems not available via the Table portion Visual Builder. Am I missing something in the options?

You're right, the Visual Builder Table does not support the spy glass/inspector panel. If this is something you'd like to see, I recommend opening a feature request, so that we can consider adding support! https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/new/choose